CIA Launches Mandarin-Language Recruitment Campaign, Intelligence Agency Confirms

In a bold escalation of intelligence recruitment tactics, the Central Intelligence Agency has launched an unprecedented social media campaign explicitly targeting Chinese nationals to spy on their government. The initiative, featuring instructional videos entirely in Mandarin, represents a striking shift toward public recruitment strategies in what experts describe as an increasingly tense information war between the global powers.

The most recent video, released last week across the CIA’s social media platforms, provides Chinese citizens with detailed technical guidance for securely contacting American intelligence. The step-by-step instructions outline security protocols including purchasing dedicated devices with cash, utilizing public Wi-Fi networks, employing VPNs and Tor browsers, creating anonymous email accounts, and accessing the CIA’s secure contact portal.

This marks the third Mandarin-language recruitment video released by the agency since May 2025, demonstrating a sustained campaign to develop human intelligence sources within China.

Intelligence community observers note that while recruiting foreign nationals has always been central to espionage operations, the public nature of this campaign—directly addressing potential Chinese informants in their native language with specific operational security measures—signals a dramatic shift in tradecraft.

“What we’re seeing is intelligence recruitment entering the digital age in a very public way,” said Dr. Emily Thornton, a former intelligence officer who now studies national security at Georgetown University. “Historically, these approaches would happen in private, often after months or years of relationship building. This direct appeal cuts through that process entirely.”

The CIA’s intensified recruitment efforts come against a backdrop of escalating Chinese espionage activities within the United States. A recent House Homeland Security Committee report documented over 60 cases of Chinese Communist Party-linked espionage and transnational repression across 20 U.S. states between January 2021 and February 2025.

These incidents encompass a range of activities including military information theft, industrial espionage targeting American companies, harassment of Chinese dissidents living in the U.S., and obstruction of justice cases.

The Center for Strategic Studies has documented 224 Chinese espionage incidents from 2000 to 2023, with the majority of economic-espionage prosecutions appearing to benefit the Chinese Communist Party. These findings align with a broader Cato Institute study that identified 1,485 foreign spies operating on American soil between 1990 and 2019.

Intelligence experts distinguish between state espionage—aimed at securing strategic advantages for foreign governments—and commercial espionage, which focuses on stealing business or trade secrets to provide economic benefits to a country’s commercial enterprises. China’s operations frequently blur these lines, with state-backed actors targeting both government and private sector targets.

The CIA’s decision to pursue such a visible recruitment strategy reflects the agency’s adaptation to modern communication channels while acknowledging the significant challenges in penetrating Chinese intelligence targets.

“The Chinese security apparatus is extraordinarily vigilant about counterintelligence,” explained former CIA analyst Robert Chen. “By going public and providing detailed operational security guidance, the agency is attempting to reach potential sources who might otherwise never consider or know how to make contact.”

The videos carefully outline procedures for maintaining anonymity, instructing viewers to erase browsing traces and avoid further contact while the agency evaluates submitted information—critical precautions in a country with extensive digital surveillance capabilities.

This digital recruitment campaign represents one facet of the broader intelligence competition between the United States and China, which has intensified across multiple domains including cyber operations, economic espionage, and traditional human intelligence gathering.

As tensions between the two powers continue to evolve, this unusually public intelligence recruitment effort underscores the high stakes of information warfare in the 21st century and signals the CIA’s determination to develop human sources within America’s primary geopolitical competitor.